Swap Meet, Auction, and Honor for Me

The Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) held its first general meeting of 2020 last Tuesday night (21 January) at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/). This was the annual Swap & Sell and Kit Auction. The Swap & Sell enabled members and guests to sell or trade model kits and related items. There were quite a few sellers there, and I bought a kit and a book for my collection.

After a while, we got some club business done. One item was the presentation of the club's Robert A. Stroup Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement. Named for a founding member of the club who died in 1979, it has been presented annually to a member chosen by his peers for his work on behalf of IPMS/Gateway. Formerly a once-in-a-lifetime honor, in 2019 the club decided to make it open to all members, whether they won before or not. I was surprised to be the person named as the latest recipient of the Stroup Award. IPMS/Gateway honored me with this award back in 1990; thus, I became the first repeat winner. I was humbled to accept the award from club president Rick Keasey, and expressed my thanks to the membership for this honor.

Dave Roeder then was presented the 2019 Ron Foulks Memorial Award for Modeler of the Year by last year's contest chairman, Marion Morris. This was Roeder's first such honor, having earned the most points in four contests the club held this past year.

Then, we had our Kit Auction, in which Keasey auctioned off kits donated by members. Proceeds from this event will go towards funding club activities this year. The bidding got spirited at times, but it was all in good fun. I picked up a few more kits with winning bids.

IPMS/Gateway's next meeting is Tuesday, 18 February, at 7:00 pm at Calvary Presbyterian Church. The 2020 Modeler of the Year race begins with the annual Out of the Box Contest. I have two models I'm working on now for that contest.

Later.